Atlus announces The Dark Spire for Nintendo DS

[AtlusAram]

A PRESS RELEASE APPEARS.

IT TELLS OF AN UPCOMING GAME, AN HOMAGE TO CLASSIC WESTERN-STYLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES.

THE GAME IS THE DARK SPIRE™ FOR NINTENDO DS™.

There is some fine print below the header.

It is the release date.

It is March 10th.

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA — DECEMBER 18, 2008 — Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today summons all fans of classic, western-style first-person role playing games to experience The Dark Spire™ for Nintendo DS™, an RPG of exploration and character development in the purest sense. Parties will be assembled, stats will be rolled, items, weapons and armor shall be equipped, and monsters will be slain. Some adventurers will choose to play using the “modern” interface, its bold, stylized textures and palettes delivering a fresh, up-to-date adventure. Others may opt for the “classic” mode, guaranteed to evoke overwhelming sensations of nostalgia as it perfectly recreates the style and simplicity of the fathers of the genre. Two different presentation modes, two different ways to experience The Dark Spire!

The powerful Archmage Tyrhung resides in a tower of mist and shadow. He holds in his possession a jewel of great worth and power. A group of adventurers assemble. Will they be able to conquer Tyrhung and his nefarious tower? The party sets out, its fate yet to be determined…

The Dark Spire is scheduled for release on March 10, 2009 with an MSRP of $29.99, it is written.

For more information about The Dark Spire, visit the official website:
http://www.atlus.com/darkspire

###

About The Dark Spire

http://www.atlus.com/screens/thedarkspire/thedarkspire_boxart.jpg

The Forest of Mist… Wrapped in a perpetual, impenetrable fog… No one knows what lies within… Just beyond the edge of the woods lies an old castle. Numerous battle flags fly proudly above its gate as symbols of its Lord’s power. It is here that King Kronus resides and rules his vast domain. During a celebration of the kingdom’s most recent conquest, Archmage Tyrhung, a powerful magician and key to the kingdom’s recent military success, stole a necklace of immeasurable value from round the Queen’s neck and disappeared into the night. Guards rushed after him, only to see him transform into a ferocious creature: a dragon. Tyrhung flew off toward the Forest of Mist, scattering the fog with his powerful wings. And when the beacon atop the Dark Spire lit up, it was clear to all: the beast had chosen his new lair… The Dark Spire, once the domain of an ancient goblin civilization, had found a new master. This is where your story begins…

Key Features
• Homage to classic RPGs — Take back the age of the great classic RPGs where you build your perfect party from the ground up. Shrewd strategy is required to navigate tough dungeon floors with limited resources, earning experience by taking on 80 different enemies out to end you.
• Dual dungeon modes — The traditional RPG experience is fully realized in Classic Mode, which offers a black-and-white wireframe dungeon environment reminiscent of the nostalgic PC RPGs. Switch back to Modern Mode to update to the full 3-D atmosphere of the Dark Spire.
• A captivating story of mist and shadow — A second person narrative reaches out from the game to speak to you of codpieces and killer rabbits, enveloping the gamer in an unforgettable adventure that offers three possible endings.

The Dark Spire has been rated “E10+” (Eveyone 10 and older) with Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language, and Suggestive Themes by the ESRB.

###

About Atlus U.S.A., Inc.
Located in Irvine, California and founded in 1991, Atlus U.S.A., Inc. is renowned for its proud tradition of publishing exceptional role-playing games with strong niche appeal. The Atlus library of critically acclaimed video games includes Odin Sphere, Trauma Center series, and the award-winning Shin Megami Tensei series. For more information, visit http://www.atlus.com.

For breaking news, special promotions, insider info, and more, visit http://www.atlus.com/faithful to join the ranks of the Atlus Faithful!

© 2008 - 2009 SUCCESS. Licensed to and published by Atlus U.S.A., Inc.

[SickleCellAnemia]

Day one!

[Sei]

Most likely day one. Nice :)

[illogicaldreamr]

Holy crap! Awesome! Wasn't expecting to see this today. Atlus delivers.

March can't come soon enough. This game looks and sounds amazing. It looks potentially better than Etrian Odyssey, but I shouldn't compare.

[DamnedToBeFree]

Awesome.

[Kakizaki]

Sweet.

I had been digging through players' impressions of Amazon JP. Maybe soon I will post some of the stuff I found.

[Sseklebeast]

Day fun!

[Kakizaki]

I really wish this would have been a 4th quarter 2008 title. ;)

Website is nice. I'm geeking out.

[Olethros]

Best news I've had all day.

+1 respect re-earned by AtlusUSA.

[Sanctine]

Good job on keeping the box art, Atlus. It's a risky move, and I like it.

[frequency]

2 great announcements (to me) to make up for that Trackmania thing (which was horrible imo) :p

I do wish Atlus would stop releasing multiple games so close to each other though ¬.¬

[Killrig]

Wow! This looks outstanding! As a fan of older RPGs in this style (Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, recently Mazes of Fate GBA, and Etrian), I simply cannot wait to get this into my DS!

Looks awesome, Atlus.

-- Killrig

[animegramma]

This game is going to be so awesome. I can't decide if I want classic or modern mode. Hopefully you can change in midgame.

[dunno001]

Oh wow... it's been a long time since I've played a game in this venue. (I consider Etrian Odyssey to be different.) This will definitely need to be ordered, and that website just makes me want it even more! (And an extra kudos for the classic mode there! That just made me laugh!) But... you guys are making Q1 09 pricey at this rate...

[jeffx]

The website is AWESOME, especially in Classic mode. Kudos to whoever was in charge.

Day cannot-can-come-soon-enough.

[dragonlife29]

Nice! :D I certainly can't wait! Day one!

I'm with everyone on the Classic Mode awesomeness of the site.

[Kakizaki]

(I consider Etrian Odyssey to be different.)

Why? Just curious.

[dunno001]

(I consider Etrian Odyssey to be different.)

Why? Just curious.
While I'm aware that they have the same basic gameplay, enough things are subtlely different to me to allow me to differenciate between them. The first one that came to my mind was the mood. EO feels a lot lighter. There's also more of a difference with front row and back row, regarding who can attack and be attacked. But the biggest difference, which I know isn't really the gameplay itself, is the ability to draw the map yourself. (Truthfully, if I could draw the map myself, I'd be even happier, but one can't have everything.) If someone sees them as the same, I can see that argument, so I won't say they're wrong, but for me personally, there's enough to distinguish the games.

[DarkShear]

Day 28, after reviews and price drops.

[Sei]

The website is AWESOME, especially in Classic mode. Kudos to whoever was in charge.

Day cannot-can-come-soon-enough.

Word. I don't know how much whoever came up with that site makes, but it's not enough. Awesome idea and delivery.

[CanuckGamer]

No not another dungeon crawler ;_; I've still not got my soul back from Izuna and EOII
*sigh* I'm going to have to pick this up now and it just might kill me... Bad Atlus!!
I hope you take responsibility for killing a gamer... :D


I playing Classic Mode all the way!!! Who is with me!

[shimo]

I'm sold day one.

[Kaibigan]

Day 28, after reviews and price drops.

Day 29, to spite DarkShear.

[jeffx]

I playing Classic Mode all the way!!! Who is with me!

Here's what I'm thinking. "Modern" will probably be a little slower with the loading and scrolling, etc. I'll probably use Modern during regular gameplay and Classic for the grinding.

[Tivor]

OMG Day ONE!!!

[DamageCity]

Nice game + Nice price

Smartest move ATLUS USA has made in a long time.

[banballow]

First off allow me to say... do want. Although I tend to suck at this style of game, I love the art style, both regular and wireframe. I'll be sure to preorder once available.

Second, tax time can't come soon enough. Get me a new PC, this typing out messages via Wii Browser takes to long. I miss my keyboard...

[JeremyR]

This is one of those announcements (and games) I love in theory, but in practice, not so much anymore. Like EOII, I think I'll end up passing until (or unless) it hits $19.99 or less

[Kid Marin]

Good job on keeping the box art, Atlus.
Word, Sanctine.

Glad this is finally announced.

[thinkfreemind]

This looks amazing. +1 more sale, good stuff Atlus.

[Towel]

Stop announcing all of these horrible games and hurry up with Devil Summoner 4.

[Kakizaki]

^Speak for yourself man. Some of us were pretty stoked for this title.

[illogicaldreamr]

Stop announcing all of these horrible games and hurry up with Devil Summoner 4.

What are you crazy? Take your negativity elsewhere. This game looks amazing. It may appeal to a certain niche of people, but that doesn't mean it's a "horrible" game like you say.

I am looking forward to an announcement for DS4 sometime in the future, though.

[jeffx]

Stop announcing all of these horrible games and hurry up with Devil Summoner 4.

you sicken me.

[retrocalypse]

I just thought I'd use my first post here ever to say:

Day one for me, no doubt.

Nice to meet all of you, by the way. :)

[Kakizaki]

lol jeffx. ;)

[maddy]

this looks really fun. i agree and hope we can switch between modes midgame. i want to try both ways!

[Ike.]

Stop announcing all of these horrible games and hurry up with Devil Summoner 4.

Are you 15?

[Olethros]

this looks really fun. i agree and hope we can switch between modes midgame. i want to try both ways!

I've heard that about you from *someone*.

[Kakizaki]

^Uh, uh, uh............... ;)

[King Frost]

I welcome old school dungeons cralwers but I'm a bit concerned about the game play. With negative AC in one screenshot, it reminds me too much of old Dungeon and Dragons which had horrible rules for video games.

For combat, it's a "miss based system", for example, a typical fight "figher lvl 1 vs. fighter lvl 1", you had 75%+ chance to miss your target when you attack and the hit that landed had a good chance to do a one hit kill. Boring. High level (10+) mages were something like 100 times better than fighters, can't beat a fireball for raw damage and effect radius. At low levels, mage were totally useless however, except perhaps for the Sleep and Stinking Clould spells. A low level cleric could slauther hordes of high levels humans with ease, thanks to the Hold Person spell. I could go on and on... The rules were written with table top gaming in mind where a dungeon master had to interpret the rules and modify them according to the situation, which is not done in a video game.

I simply hope that they have severly tweaked these rules to make it more balanced and enjoyable.

[etrianfan]

Great, now I'm hoping Atlus will release the other dungeon crawler, Elminage DS REMIX.

[LusterLegend]

Awesome! I can't wait!

[ShadowRaskolnik]

Looks good, I'll most likely buy this the week if not the day it is released.

[illogicaldreamr]

You can play a flash version of the game on this site!

http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/genmunotou/taiken.html

Plus more here:

http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/002365.html

[Baddbear]

Woot! This game announcement is like early Christmas!

[Hitoshura]

Good God.

March cannot get here any faster. D:

I think I'm more excited for this than I was for EO2.

[Kakizaki]

^I was going to say the same thing on both accounts.

[tross]

Sounds interesting enough. I'll have to do some research on it. Its release date happens to be on my birthday, which might be fate trying to help me make my decision. Of course, I'm assuming that's the shipment date, and my local eb games sometimes gets its products in a few days late, but that's beside the point. In any case, I'll definitely look into it.

[Zachalmighty]

Awesome Atlus! I have also been waiting for this announcement.

[James Fiend]

Looks good. Will this thing have a mapping function or do I have to blow the dust off my old graph paper? I don't feel like digging through old Battletech sheets and gigantic floppy disks, but I will if I have to.

[illogicaldreamr]

Looks good. Will this thing have a mapping function or do I have to blow the dust off my old graph paper? I don't feel like digging through old Battletech sheets and gigantic floppy disks, but I will if I have to.

The game uses an auto-mapping function.

[Tivor]

Gave myself a new sig. :)

[Zephyr]

Looking forward to it.

[-Oath]

Looks sweet!

[Flußkönig]

This seems like a good pick for Atlus. I am really digging the art style, but I haven't seen/heard much about the gameplay or difficulty, so I am not going to get too excited yet.

[Kakizaki]

^From everything that I have read, the difficulty and atmosphere are on par with older Wizardry titles.

[toszi]

T_T
And we still got nothing on Draglade 2, Infinite Frontier, or even my favorite: Magna Carta Port!
My Christmas died...

[slayn]

Ok, seriously, why would anyone in their right mind want the Magna Carta port localized? That game is the epitome of style over substance. There are a lot of sites that have anime boobies for you to look at; there's no need for Atlus to waste their precious time on Magna Carta.

[toszi]

"Ok, seriously, why would anyone in their right mind want the Magna Carta port localized? That game is the epitome of style over substance. There are a lot of sites that have anime boobies for you to look at; there's no need for Atlus to waste their precious time on Magna Carta."

What made you think that I liked MC: Portable for the boobs?
I loved the game and found it to be one of the most entertaining battle systems In a long time.
I have the console versions, but I'm not at home a lot so portable games are big hits.

[Kakizaki]

^There is a quote feature. Also, chill out please.

[TRDG]

On the story and replay value by chance, besides the old and new "school" look?

Cheers, I'll probably get this when more info comes out!!

Tom

[Kakizaki]

A little OT, but sometimes the art of DS really reminds me of Mike Mignola.

Kind of wish a Western developer would utilize his art.

[Tivor]

A little OT, but sometimes the art of DS really reminds me of Mike Mignola.

Kind of wish a Western developer would utilize his art.

For me, the art style instantly reminded of the original Bard's Tale series on Apple II.

Which is, of course, a very good thing. :)

[faithfulfanboy]

This game looks awesome! I have always been a fan of old school Wizardry clones. Too bad most of them never make it to the US. Go Atlus!

[ryne11]

This will definitely be a day 1 purchase for me

I wish I was old enough to have played the old school RPGs you guys are discussing (well, i would have needed a PC too)

[Ravenwoods]

I signed up to this website only to say: THIS GAME LOOKS FRICKEN AWESOME!

I only wish for couple of things:
1. Veriety in enemies and lot of puzzles/traps and surprises (like secrets)
2. Being able to switch from classic to modern on the go because I can not decide which one to play with...maybe play one then go with other after.

Anyways, kudos for this awesome game..I love how it is so old school but also modern!!!

P.S. Amazing fricken website too!!!!!:o

[faithfulfanboy]

This will definitely be a day 1 purchase for me

I wish I was old enough to have played the old school RPGs you guys are discussing (well, i would have needed a PC too)

Just search around Google, it's very easy to find the older Wizardry games to play now that they are abandonware and decade(s) old.

[King Frost]

This will definitely be a day 1 purchase for me

I wish I was old enough to have played the old school RPGs you guys are discussing (well, i would have needed a PC too)

Just search around Google, it's very easy to find the older Wizardry games to play now that they are abandonware and decade(s) old.

The fact that the copyright owners didn't do something with their IP in years doesn't mean it's legal to pirate it. However, since it's quite old stuff, you will unlikely get into trouble to pirate it since most people don't care, perhaps even the copyright holders.

[faithfulfanboy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir-Tech

RIP!

[King Frost]

Company assets, including IP rights, are generally sold when they go bankrupt so there is probably another company which owns the Wizardry series these days.

[Kakizaki]

^There continues to be quite a few Wizardry titles released in Japan.

[Kishou]

I think the best team to get is:

Druid (Elf Lawful)
Samurai (Dwarf Chaotic)
Ranger (Halfling Neutral)
Ninja (Human Neutral)

But this is just me on educated guesses. The concept is weird, actually, seeing how it use to be such an old school game, and the classic graphics kinda make me raise an eyebrow.

[Der Jermeister]

There's a flash demo for this game on the Japanese site:

http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/genmunotou/taiken.html

Would it be possible for there to be a translated version on the U.S. site?

[TheMagicHat]

I realize I'm a bit late with the release a couple weeks away, but I decided to check out the site for this game. I've played very few first person dungeon crawlers besides Etrian Oddessy and I must admit that it's taken a lot of time to get into (been spoiled by too many other types of RPGs over the years), but this kind of game definitely has it's charm. Looking through the site has definitely hooked my interest.

Once again, Atlus has whored me. And it didn't even take an artbook this time! I'll be putting in my preorder this weekend.

And I just realized: I'll be picking this game up a day before I fly out to Connecticut for a business trip. Nice way to break the game in. :D

[Flagg]

There's a flash demo for this game on the Japanese site:

http://www.success-corp.co.jp/software/ds/genmunotou/taiken.html

Would it be possible for there to be a translated version on the U.S. site?

Quite charming game. Love the art style and musics make great atmosphere in this one.